13/05/2013 BBC News at Six

referendum on Britain's EU membership before the next election.

On a visit to Washington, David Cameron gets President Obama's

support as he dismisses his EU critics. I want to see the European

Union change. I want to see Britain's relationship with the

European Union change and improve. It will be a false choice between

the status quo and leaving. I don't think that is the choice the British

public want. You probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in

a very important relationship before you break it off. Also tonight: The

murder of 12-year-old Tia Sharp. Her grandmother's partner finally admits

he killed her. Spotted on CCTV, Stuart Hazell was with Tia when she

was last seen alive. The former Cabinet Minister Chris

Huhne is freed after spending two months in prison.

And back to Earth with a hit. The astronaut whose tribute to the

wonders of space has become an internet sensation. Failed by the

London Ambulance Service. The fight for compensation is taken to the

courts. New figures that show the number of criminals escaping

News at Six. David Cameron has accused senior Conservatives who

have called for Britain to leave the EU now of throwing in the towel. On

a visit to Washington for talks with President Obama, the Prime Minister

ruled out holding an in-out referendum on Britain's EU

membership until after the next election. President Obama gave him

his support telling Britain, "You probably want to see if you can fix

what's broken in a relationship before you break it off."

David Cameron swept into the White House on the latest stop of his

diplomatic World Tour. His aim? To talk to President Obama about

possible Syrian peace talks and the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. Here,

he couldn't avoid talking about Europe. The contrast with his party

at home could not be starker. Whilst some Tories were talking of leaving

the EU, the Prime Minister was banging the drum for a trade deal

between the EU and the US, potentially the world's largest Free

Trade Area that he said could mean �10 billion a year for Britain's

economy. For the next five weeks, they are crucial. To realise the

benefits this deal could bring will take political will.

REPORTER: You are talking about a new EU-US trade deal? Yet, members

of your party are talking about leaving the EU. What is your message

to them? There is a very good reason why there is not going to be a

referendum tomorrow. It will give the British public the false choice

between the status quo, which I don't think is acceptable. I want to

see the EU change. I want to see Britain's relationship with the

European Union change and improve. It would be a false choice. I don't

think that is the choice the British public want or the British public

deserve. Was America worried about all this talk of leaving? The people

of the UK have to make decisions for themselves. I will say this. Dave's

basic point - you probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in

a very important relationship before you break it off. That makes some

sense to me. These talks discussed Syria, too. The Prime Minister said

there was an urgent window of opportunity to get both sides around

the negotiating table. He also promised to double the amount of

non-lethal aid that Britain gives to the opposition. Another �10 million

and more armoured vehicles and body armour. Mr Cameron came here to the

FBI's headquarters to pick the brains of America's security chiefs

about how they respond to terrorism and incidents like the Boston

bombings. This operation centre is open around-the-clock, it holds 400

staff and more than 1,000 telephone lines. Thank you very much.David

Cameron leaves for Boston, then he is off to New York and the United

Nations. Europe looks set to dog him every step of the way. James Landale

is outside the White House now. Let's talk about the EU. How much

difference will President Obama's support make to the Prime Minister?

Well, if the leader of the free world supports you in anything, that

is not to be sniffed at. President Obama made clear he supported David

Cameron's strategy of trying to renegotiate Britain's relationship

with tesmt U. It will strengthen the Prime Minister's negotiating hand.

It shows that the special relationship is in fine fettle, that

President Obama is prepared to help out a friend in need. It won't end

this debate because this democratic President doesn't enjoy untrammelled

support on the Conservative backbenches. I don't think the most

powerful man in the world could stop a Tory MP in full cry over Europe.

For many Tory MPs, it is their local electorates and the prospect of

defeat at the next election which is concentrating the mind.

In a dramatic change of plea, the man accused of murdering 12-year-old

Tia Sharp has admitted killing her. A jury heard that Stuart Hazell, 37,

was attracted to the 12-year-old and had assaulted her last summer. Tia's

body was found in the loft of the house that Hazell shared with the

schoolgirl's grandmother in South London. Matt Prodger is at the Old

Bailey. For nine months, Stuart Hazell has

denied murdering Tia Sharp. Finally, half-way through his trial, he

changed his plea to guilty. His lawyer said that was to spare the

family of Tia Sharp any further anguish. In truth, there was a

mountain of evidence against him and it is unlikely that any jury would

have acquitted him. Tia Sharp, the 12-year-old

schoolgirl who went to spend the night at her grandmother's house and

never returned. Stuart Hazell, her grandmother's partner, was the last

to see her alive. CCTV showed she spent the afternoon shopping with

him. The court was told that Tia idolised Hazell. Hours later, he

sexually assaulted and murdered her. Tia's relatives had been bracing

themselves for further distressing evidence today. Suddenly, Hazell

pleaded guilty. I'm glad that Stuart Hazell changed his plea to guilty

this morning. Four days of trial have been very hard to deal with,

hearing the vile things Hazell did to Tia. In my opinion, it would not

be enough. He should serve his time and then be hung. Last August,

residents of the new Addington housing estate had united behind

Tia's family in their struggle to find her. The night she died, she

was alone with Hazell while her grandmother was at work. In a TV

interview, he said Tia had left to go shopping the following morning.

He was lying. It is not about me, it is about Tia. This is all about Tia.

We have to get her home. We have to get her home. I don't know what more

to do. Police searched this house repeatedly, but it was almost a week

before they finally discovered Tia's body in the attic. It was an

oversight for which they were to apologise to the family. It was a

case of human error on the part of an inexperienced searcher that led

to the body not being found. The police have apologised. We have

addressed that, both in our electricion of search officers and

-- in our selection of search officers and in our training regime.

Today, police released this interview with Hazell. He refuses to

answer questions. They later found images of child abuse on his phone,

videos of Tia and a photo of her body. Hazell had grown up in care.

His mother was a prostitute and the court heard he had been raped as a

teenager. Local people remember a violent man, jailed for threatening

a landlord with a machete three years ago. He started walking up the

road with a machete in his hand. With that, I locked the pub doors,

called the police, the correct thing to do, I told everyone to stay

inside. He was a horrible man. He was a bully. He was a big lad. He

was a bully. Not very popular. statement released today, Tia

Sharp's mother said: She had not yet allowed herself to grieve. The trial

may be over, she said, but not for her. In that statement, she went on

to say that her young son had asked when Tia would be coming back home.

It made me cry, she said, I had to tell him she was a star in the sky.

There's a Serious Case Review which has been carried out into any

possible shortcomings or failings by the authorities, which may have

contributed or -- contributed in the lead-up to her death. Nigel Evans,

the deputy speak of the House of Commons, said he would be away from

his duty for a few days. A convicted articled -- armed robber

is to be extradited to Britain. Andrew Moran agreed to be sent home

when he appeared at a court in Madrid. He was arrested yesterday.

The Army in Bangladesh says it is ending its search for survivors in

the wreckage of an eight-storey clothing factory. More than 1,100

bodies have been recovered from the building. The Army says there is no

more hope of finding anyone alive in the rubble.

Two severely disabled men have gone to the Court of Appeal arguing for

the right-to-die. Paul Lamb wants a doctor to be allowed to help him to

take his own life without facing a murder charge. The other man, known

as "Martin" wants a change in the law to stop someone being prosecuted

if they help him to die. Clive Coleman was in court.

After two decades of paralysis and pain, Paul Lamb has made the

difficult journey to London and to the Court of Appeal to ask it to

give him the right to have a doctor end his life. I do actually love

life. I'm hanging on as long as I can. I don't ever want to be in a

bed where I think, "Wow, I'm not going to get out of this bed." I

don't ever want to be in that situation. I'm constantly going

through pain and being doped up. paralysis is so severe he has just

minimal movement in one hand that he couldn't take the final steps to end

his own life. He would need a doctor to kill him. That would amount to

murder. Paul is too physically disabled to take the final steps. So

what he would be asking the court to do is to sanction these steps in

advance after the court has heard all of the evidence in his case.

is a legal challenge started by the late Tony Nicklinson who died

shortly after the High Court rejected his bid to change the law

on the right-to-die. Now Paul Lamb is taking it on. In court today, the

Lord Chief Justice said that he and his fellow judges were acutely aware

of the desperate situation that Paul Lamb and another man who is

challenging prosecution policy on assisted suicide find themselves in.

But, he said, we can't decide this as a matter of personal sympathy. We

have to decide it according to the law. Many oppose any change in the

law that would allow doctors to actively end a life. There will be

so many people who will be made vulnerable by reason of their

disability, their age, their dementia, who will feel pressured

into accepting a way out of their lives like this. Previously, the

High Court had said that only Parliament can change the law. This

Wednesday, a Private Members' Bill will be put before it in an attempt

to legalise assisted dying for the terminally-ill who have less than

six months to live. That won't help Paul. He hasn't got a terminal

illness. His hopes lie with three senior judges.

The former Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife

have been released from prison. They both served a quarter of their

eight-month sentences for lying about a speeding offence. They were

jailed in March for perverting the course of justice. Bags packed and

about to be freed. Chris Huhne left Leyhill Prison in Gloucestershire at

7.30am, two months into an eight-month sentence.

REPORTER: How was prison? The former Energy Secretary went

home by car, but he was not driving himself. It was when he was behind

the wheel over ten years ago that led to his jail sentence. He picked

up a speeding ticket, but persuaded his then wife to say she was driving

and accept the points. After an acrimonious divorce, Vicky Pryce

told newspapers what she had done and both were jailed for perverting

the course of justice. Chris Huhne arrived home in Central London with

the girlfriend he left his wife for. He will now be fitted with an

electronic tag. It has been a humbling and sobering experience. I

would like to thank all of those who have written to me hundreds of

letters and all my family and friends who have stood by me.

Clapham, Vicky Pryce was back home, too, having also been release

frommed prison this morning. She is very grateful for all the support.

She now intends to spend time with her family and she looks forward to

returning to her career as an economist. Chris Huhne doesn't have

a career to return to here. His time in politics is surely over for this

previously successful, driven and Our top story this evening: David

Cameron gets President Obama's support as the Prime Minister

dismisses his European critics. I am at Old Trafford were in a few

minutes, Sir Alex Ferguson will lead his players on a victory

parade around the city for one last For five months he's been living on

board the International Space Station. Tonight, Commander Chris

Hadfield, is preparing to return to earth. The Canadian astronaut has

become something of an internet sensation by tweeting spectacular

images from space. And for his finale, he has posted his own

tribute to David Bowie's hit, Space Oddity, which has already been

watched by more than a million people. Danny Savage reports.

# Ground control to Major Tom. Commander Chris Hadfield, astronaut,

scientist... And now, the star of the first pop video made in space.

His cover of David Bailey's hit his his farewell tribute to the

International Space Station. -- David Bowie week. After five months,

he is due to return to Earth. He is already well known to many people

because of the pictures he has treated from more than 200 miles

above us. I grabbed my camera and I raced over to the windows and try

to get a picture of the world that is underneath us.

And quite a few of his pictures have been of the UK. This is what

London looks like from out in space. The English Channel and the port of

Dover. Further west, the distinctive shape of the Isle of

Wight. The Humber estuary, and what about the Lake District with snow

on the stock -- summits. And when those pictures have been treated

from space, there has been a huge response from people living in the

UK. We managed to get a question to him in one of his recent link-ups

with there. I have a question from you from the BBC. We asked him what

he thought. You see the Isle of Wight, or some of the northern

regions into southern Scotland, they have a perspective on it that

may be did not exist for them in the regular two dimensional way we

see things. David Bowie has said this is probably the most poignant

version of Space oddity ever created. It is definitely recorded

in the right place. The former Prime Minister, Gordon

Brown, returned to the political front line today as the face of

Labour's campaign for Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom. Mr

Brown said Scotland would be worse off if there were a yes vote next

year, but nationalists insist the country would be fairer and

wealthier under independence. Here's our Scotland Correspondent,

James Cook. For centuries, Scotland has shared

a flag and fait with its British neighbours. Scottish Labour builds

ships for the Empire and the Scottish party helped build the

welfare state and the NHS. Today, a former Labour Prime Minister came

to Glasgow to re-enter the political fray and defend the Union.

In the last few years I have had time on my hands... The time to

reflect, courtesy of the British people. I want to put the positive

principle, forward looking case for a strong Scottish Parliament inside

a strong United Kingdom. Workers across the UK had always marched

for the same causes, said Gordon Brown, for a living wage, decent

pension and National Health Service. Independence, he argued would put

it in danger, risking a race to the bottom. His speech evoked another

era when the River Clyde was bustling with industry and the

British labour movement was forged. The nationalists say that

maintaining that left wing position is only possible with Scottish

independence. It is a choice between two very, very different

futures. One in which we take the power to shape our own future into

our own hands, and another where we leave the power in the hands of a

Westminster establishment that is set on a social and economic path

that most people in Scotland wouldn't choose. I another day of

speeches, claims and rebuttals in Scotland's independence campaign.

Neighbours think Gordon Brown is a vote winner here. Although he lost

the last election, he increased labour's share of the vote in

Scotland. The people of this country have another 16 months of

listening before their voice is heard.

The parent company of British Gas, Centrica, says this winter's cold

weather meant fuel consumption was 18% higher between January and

April than in the same period last year. It says it will use the

increased profits to avoid having to raise prices further for as long

as possible. The organisers of next year's

Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have promised there'll be no repeat of

the ticketing problems at last year's London Olympics. They've

announced that one million tickets will be made available with two

thirds of them costing �25 or less. And they say most of the tickets

will go to the public, as Laura Bicker reports.

They are ready. The swimming-pool is set. The track is being tested.

The 2014 games venues are almost complete, so today it was time to

tell sports fans how they can get hold of tickets. We have tickets

for every sport starting at �15. Two thirds of the tickets are �25

or less. It gives people a choice to buy tickets and come along and

see the sport next summer. Organisers are keen to avoid these

early Olympic embarrassments. Empty seats seats left for sponsored

angered those desperate for tickets. They are not just learning lessons

from London. Scotland has hosted the Games before. In 1986 in

Edinburgh, there was success on the track, but the event was left over

�4 million in debt. This time that when TB14 team say the Games will

be on time and on budget. -- 2014. The demand for tickets will be high.

People wanted to be in London to soak up the atmosphere, what other

sport it was. The great news is, the chance for anyone who wants to

come along and be there, made 2014 a massive success. This venue is

still under construction, but once it is finished, it will seat 12,500

people for the gymnastics. Fans can apply for tickets from 19th August

to 16th September on wine, and by post. You can find out just soon

afterwards if you have been lucky enough to get what you want.

The British tennis Number One, Laura Robson, has beaten an injury-

hit Venus Williams in the first round of the Italian Open in Rome.

After a poor start, serving two double faults in her opening game,

Robson, won 6-3, 6-2 although Williams was far from her best.

Robson will now meet the other Williams sister, Serena, in the

second round. Now, Sir Alex Ferguson can't put

his feet up and enjoy his retirement just yet. After partying

on the pitch at Old Trafford with his Manchester United team and the

Premier League trophy yesterday, Sir Alex is back at the stadium

tonight at the start of an open top bus tour through the city. And our

Sports Editor, David Bond, is there with him, David.

Yes, crowds have been building at Old Trafford. They have had to put

up with some awful weather. We have an hailstones, thunder and

lightning, but they stuck with it. Players are on the bus at the

moment, we are still waiting for Sir Alex Ferguson. Manchester

United have done plenty of these victory parades down the years. But

this is like no other. All of these thousands of fans have come to say

farewell and thanks to a man who helped turn his club into a global

sporting giant. Look at the support, what a hard act soon followed he is

going to be? It is impossible, and David Moyes has got to try and take

that on. It is not just the trophies. If you look at how the

game has changed during his time, since he walked in here all those

years ago, 26 and a half years ago, you did not have English football

with the money involved, player- power involved in quite the same

way. You did not have clubs owned by foreign billionaires. The whole

landscape of the game has been changed enormously. Somehow, Sir

Alex Ferguson has managed to navigate his way through it, adapt

and deliver success. That is why so many people are here to say

farewell and thanks to him. I don't think you'll ever see his like

again. Fine briefly in Manchester, but is

it going to last? England and Wales has a distinct possibility of

flooding tomorrow. One or two places could see some snow. Trouble

is looming in the Atlantic. Ahead of that we have had blustery

showers. If you are lucky you will avoid them and get some decent

spells of Sunshine. Showers drifting east, but more gathering

across Scotland and heading south through the night. Some through the

Irish Sea as well. Proper rain arriving in the south-west by the

end of the night. One a two spots getting as low as two or three

degrees. I wouldn't rule out a touch of frost. The rain is

initially across the south-west of England tomorrow. In marches across

southern country and up through parts of Wales. The Midlands will

turn wet in the afternoon and will be knocking on the door of East

Anglia by the end of proceedings. It will be culled under the rain

clouds. Further north there will be some Sunshine. But even here some

showers. Underneath rain clouds across parts of south-west England,

Wales and the Midlands tomorrow afternoon, some places won't get

above five or six degrees. Unusually cold. That leaves the

possibility for the odd flake of snow. It pushes the rain ever

northwards and strong winds. Watch out for weather warnings over the

next 24 hours. Eventually the rain will turn up in eastern Scotland on

Wednesday. Behind that, some improvements and some Sunshine.

When is it going to get warmer? We will have more online, you might

A reminder of our main story: David Cameron gets President Obama's

support as the Prime Minister dismisses his European critics.

The murder of 12-year-old Tia Sharp at the Old Bailey - Stuart Hazell

changes his plea and admits killing her.